Burial Tree - Rituals FLAC

AQUARIUS RECORDS REVIEW:

Rituals is the second full-length from these aQ pals, local atmospheric psychedelic heavies Burial Tree, whose last album, Outer Dark, was a big hit around here, and thankfully, Rituals takes up right where Outer Dark left off, in fact if anything, it's a more fully realized disc, a killer concoction equal parts blackened atmospheric ambience, Neurosis like metallic heft, and psychedelic space rock heaviness! It opens with a sprawling expanse of sinister drones, and string laden low end smolder, building to an almost Nitsch like cacophony, shot through with subtle FX, the perfect lead in to "Black Magick Trance", which might be our favorite BT track yet, a driving thunderous psych jam, that's mathy, and proggy and seriously spaced out, and has the group more aligned with outfits like White Hills or the Heads, the same sort of endless shoegazing heart-of-the-sun Hawkwind style zoner jams, the band locked tight into a serious groove, over which the guitars writhe wildly, the song switching gears constantly, a churning math metal workout one second, a killer super dynamic, mathy stuttery start/stop, that leads into a dirgey breakdown, the whole thing laced with strings, and all sorts of swirling effects, the perfect final jam / closing number (which it was when BT played their first ever show recently).
The other three tracks here, while not nearly as bombastic, still offer up everything we've come to dig about these guys, a loping twang flecked Morricone-ish post rock, rife with swoonsome strings, and finished off with a super rocking near metallic outro, a warm washed out atmospheric organ driven dirge that blossoms into a classic almost doom metal heaviness, wreathed in shredding guitars and driven by some serious drum pound and some almost ELO like cello chug, and finally, a gorgeous, malevolent blackdrone combo, cavernous and caustic, a slow shift from soft shimmer to grim buzz, from drifting mesmer to grinding abject blackness. Awesome.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each one hand numbered. Nice packaging too with multiple color cardstock inserts.